The Search For Something More
by CosmicButton
Summary: Nine strangers come together after a plane crashes onto an island. They must learn to survive together until they're rescued and can return to their loved ones. But what happens when they find more than they bargained for? DE AU/AH Based loosely on LOST.
1. Chapter 1

A/N Okay so I probably really shouldn't start another story whilst writing Wrong Salvatore because I'm not the greatest updater as it is but I just couldn't get this idea out of my head. I hope you guys will enjoy this story. The response I get for Wrong Salvatore is unbelievable and if this story receives attention anywhere near close to that story I'll be over the moon. Anyway, this first chapter is a little short, don't worry they'll be longer.

Summary: The search for the survivors of the plane crash is underway. Ironically, two of the survivors are also searching for something they didn't even know they were looking for. Based loosely on LOST. DxE

Disclaimer: No matter how many birthday wishes I waste I still do not own The Vampire Diaries, nor do I own LOST.

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><p>Damon Salvatore stood in line, impatiently checking his watch. This was taking too long; he was going to miss his flight. He <em>couldn't<em> miss this flight. He needed to go to New York to finally meet the father that had abandoned him before he was even born. He'd finally gathered the courage to do it and now it seemed maybe fate was interfering to make sure it didn't happen. The first plane had been delayed for three hours before it was cancelled and then they found that there was an exhaust failure on the second flight he booked and so here he was again, waiting to book his plane to the Big Apple for the third time in the past ten hours. To say he was tired would be the understatement of the year; he was completely shattered.

"No, I don't think you understand," said the man in front of him, speaking to the woman booking the flights. "We need to get on this flight, it's urgent. If you're finding this tiny job too hard to do then I guess I'll take it up with the guy in charge." The woman next to him cringed. It was then that Damon noticed how beautiful this woman before him was. She had dead straight chocolate strands of hair and beautiful brown doe eyes that pulled him in. Her complexion was olive and without a blemish in sight. All he could think was: 'stunning'.

The attendant behind the desk sighed. "Let me see. There are a couple seats available in first class but it is going to cost you a lot more,"

"That's not a problem. Did you hear that, Elena? First class, bet you've never flown first class before." Damon couldn't help but feel that the man with the desirable woman sounded a little condescending. But Damon was all too happy to just focus on the fact that he had discovered the mystery woman's name in seconds. "We'll take it."

A few minutes later, after the attendant had booked them their tickets, the couple strolled towards the gates and out of Damon's mind. He had other less trivial issues to worry about.

"Hey," Damon said in his flirty voice. He couldn't stop himself. The voice would just come out sultry whenever he was in the presence of a hot girl and the lady behind the desk was indeed hot.

"Hi, how can I help you?" she replied, her voice breathless but inviting at the same time. Damon grinned at his instant effect on this woman.

"I just wanted to make sure that my seat was booked on this flight. The name's Damon Salvatore," he smiled cockily. He didn't know where he was getting all this energy to flirt from. The woman smiled as she tapped away at the computer to make sure that his booking was correct.

"There's been a problem with the seating. We're going to have to move you to first class. I'm sorry if that's an inconvenience." Damon smiled knowing that she was talking bullshit. There was no problem. Oh the perks of flirting and having a hot body.

"Oh that's no inconvenience." Before Damon could see if she could spare five minutes to have a romp in the washrooms he was interrupted by a pesky blonde behind him.

"If you guys are done flirting, I'd really like to book my ticket," she snapped. Damon narrowed his eyes at her. This girl was mighty fine too. What was this? The hot girls parade in an airport day? He wouldn't hit on this one though, she'd cockblocked him and so she didn't deserve to be the object of his affection.

"It was nice to meet you," Damon said smiling smugly at the woman behind the desk and realising he had no idea what her name was. He looked to see if she was wearing a name tag but alas she wasn't. He shrugged his shoulders realising he didn't care either way. He started making his way to gate 24. Maybe he'd be lucky this time and actually get on a plane.

He sat in an uncomfortably small, plastic airport chair, impatiently waiting to board. He glanced at his ticket; he was really going back to America to meet the man that abandoned him his whole life. It was surreal.

"Now boarding British Airways Flight 494, first class." The voice rang over the speaker, and Damon stood eagerly from his seat all too happy to finally get on a plane. Standing in yet another line, he waited to be let onto the plane. The line passed much more quickly than the last few he had been in – it seemed everyone was eager to just get on the plane. He quickly found his seat and was glad to see it was by the window.

He saw the annoying blonde girl a few rows behind him struggling to lift her suitcase into the above compartment. Feeling like being a gentleman he quickly took it from her and easily did it himself. Not waiting for her to thank him he walked back to the fourth row and took his seat. It was in a row of three, and he just hoped that whoever was beside him wouldn't bother him.

He barely contained a groan as he saw the overprotective boyfriend with his timid girlfriend walk up to the row he was seated in. The brunette made a move to sit next to him but was held back by the moody bore.

"I'll sit next to the guy," he said sternly. The girl just nodded in agreement and let her boyfriend walk in front of her. Damon looked out of the window. He smiled; just his presence made guys go overprotective on their girlfriends.

At least sitting next to a guy meant that he wouldn't get distracted by the scent of the girl. It wasn't the sickly sweet smell he usually got from girls that piled on their perfume. It was more subtle and natural.

Damon felt the plane begin to wheel around the runway. It was happening. He was going to fly over to the States again, for the first time in five years and meet a certain Giuseppe Salvatore. Damon relaxed into his seat as the plane took off into the air. His ears had already begun popping and it reminded him of exactly why he wasn't a fan of flying.

His peace was interrupted after an hour or so by the annoying guy seated next to him asking if he'd 'watch' his girlfriend whilst he went to the toilets. Damon had almost forgotten that the couple had been seated next to him. They hadn't said a word to each other the whole flight. Damon had been in a relationship for quite a long time but he did remember that not talking to you girlfriend for an hour despite sitting right next to her meant trouble in paradise. Maybe now would be a good time to make him move.

"Hey, I'm Damon," he said stretching his hand out for her to shake. Elena looked up startled that he was speaking to her. She looked at his outstretched hand before wearily taking it in her own hand and shaking it.

"Elena Gilbert," she said in the sweetest voice Damon had ever heard. It was soft and gentle. Damon pretended to be surprised by her name and it seemed like the girl bought it.

"So, overprotective boyfriend, huh?" Damon asked. One of Elena's eyebrows rose. He was getting pretty personal for a guy she had only exchanged names with.

"Depends on what you class overprotective." Damon chuckled at her response.

"Well then I class him as overprotective."

"And I class him as caring," Elena bit back.

The plane they were on started jerking side to side and the movement caused Elena to grip onto her seat until her knuckles turned white. Her eyes had widened in fear.

The turbulence caused the flight attendant walking down the aisle to stumble and then regain her balance.

Damon over heard the flight attendant that had fallen down speak to another attendant in a panicked voice. "I just spoke to the captain and he said that we're over a thousand miles of course!"

"What?" the other one screeched.

"We moved off-course because there was too much fog…" Damon couldn't hear anymore as they walked away, further down the plane.

"Please fasten your seatbelts," the pilot's voice rang out. "We've just hit a bit of turbulence, but we should be through it in no time."

Damon quickly undid his seatbelt and stood up to move to the seat next to Elena. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt and was quickly trying to find the two ends but before she could the plane jolted backwards causing Damon to fall into the middle seat and Elena to fall into his lap.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed, blushing furiously. He smiled at her, trying to reassure her.

"It's okay." She struggled to get up, the pressure that was continually increasing in the plane getting the better of her. Damon gingerly grabbed her wrists, trying to help her up. He got her into her seat where she quickly fastened her seatbelt and he followed suit.

He quickly grabbed Elena's right hand and gripped it hard. Elena smiled gratefully at him before she suddenly remembered her boyfriend.

"Stefan!" she shouted and looking backwards to see where the toilets were.

"Hey, hey! Calm down, okay? He's probably sat down at a seat that is close to the toilets," he said trying to comfort the now trembling women whilst his insides were all messed up with fear. He could see the tears beginning to cascade down her face as the plane's turbulence only got worse. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw luggage flying out of the compartments, one hit a window causing it to smash. There was no surviving this.

Damon held onto Elena's hand and used his fingers to gently brush across her knuckles whilst taking deep breaths. The plane was going to crash. It was heading south. Elena shut her eyes tightly whilst Damon took a quick glance behind him again to see if he could spot the girl's boyfriend but to his utter horror what he saw would never be erased from his mind. The back half of the plane had torn completely apart from the front.

It was only then that the oxygen masks fell from overhead. Damon was relieved to see they had finally come down. Elena still hadn't noticed that the back half of the plane had gone. The two of them fumbled to put masks on. Their hands remained separated. Damon distantly heard the pilot's voice over the intercom, telling them to remain calm and he scoffed… had he not seen what had happened to the plane? It was the last thing he could remember listening to before, with one final lurch of the plane, everything went completely black.

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><p>Thoughts? Should I carry this on? Or do you all want me to just focus on getting Wrong Salvatore finished?<p>

Twitter: CosmicButton  
>LJ: miss_asha_s<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Damon rolled over groaning. He tried to open his eyes but all he could see was a blur. It felt like there were a stampede of elephants jumping on his head; it was positively throbbing. He opened his eyes again, forcing them to adjust to the light intensity so that he could focus on the surroundings. All he saw was sand. Huge stretches of sand and the sea at the bottom. There was nothing else.

The events on the plane fast-forwarded through his brain. He remembered the feeling of utter fear he had felt seconds before passing out. How had he ended up here and where was everyone else? How long had he been unconscious? The endless questions were not helping him deal with his pounding headache.

A pain shot through his left shoulder as he attempted to sit up. A quick look at it confirmed his suspicion that it had been dislocated. He needed someone to help him pop it back into place but he was alone. What was he going to do?

A persistent scream coming from nearby brought him back to action. He tried to stand up without moving his arm too much. He needed to see how many others had survived and were stranded and he needed to solve the pain in his shoulder.

He headed in the direction of the screams, speeding up a little as he realised they weren't too far away. As he rounded a corner of the beach, he was taken aback by the mayhem lying before him. The woman who was screaming was the incredibly annoying blonde one. He approached her hoping to get her to shut her mouth. Her screaming was not doing wonders for his head.

"Could you keep it down?" he snapped at her. She immediately shut up. It was like she hadn't even realised she had been screaming. Tears were streaming down her face and Damon almost felt bad for snapping at her.

He made a move to leave but was surprised when the blonde held him back. "Please don't leave."

Damon couldn't stop himself from smiling cockily, "sorry princess but I have more important things to do right now than comfort you." The blonde scowled at his words but it seemed to be the exact thing she needed to calm down.

Damon quickly escaped. He needed someone to help him with his shoulder and quick but it seemed that everyone was too busy making sure their loved ones were okay.

He spotted the girl who sat beside him on the plane hunched over at the side. He didn't know why but he felt compelled to make sure she was okay. As he approached her he cleared his throat. "Are you okay?"

She snapped her head up to look at him. "Does it look like anyone is fucking okay?"

Damon's eyes widened at her less-than-kind reply before nodding his head. "Okay, that was a stupid question." He noticed that the white jeans she had been wearing were now soaked through with blood. He frowned – she was injured.

"Do you mind if I take a look?" he said nodding towards her bleeding leg. "I went to med school."

Elena seemed hesitant but she nodded her head and rolled her pant leg up.

Damon moved down to her level and using his uninjured arm he started to examine her wound. It looked as though some shrapnel had scratched her. It was deeper and longer than he would have liked.

"It's not great," he told her, "you're going to have to stay completely off the leg for a couple days. But you should be okay." He accidentally moved at an odd angle, irritating his shoulder. He grimaced in pain, his hand flying instinctively to the wound.

"What's wrong with your shoulder?" she asked.

"It somehow got dislocated during the crash," he explained. "Do you mind…" he trailed off, unsure of how to ask her.

"What?" she asked, "You mean, pop it back in?" Her eyes widened at his suggestion. "I really don't think that I'm qualified to do that."

"I'll talk you through it, it really isn't that hard." Damon noticed her hesitance. "Actually, you know what, I'll just ask someone else. I'm sure they won't mind." He started to get up but Elena quickly grabbed his uninjured arm and turned him towards her again.

"No, I'll do it. Just don't yell at me if I do it wrong."

Damon nodded in reply and instructed her on the procedure, letting out a yell when she pulled on the arm, securing the shoulder back in place.

"Sorry," she said, hearing his cry of pain. "Did I do it wrong?"

"No, it was perfect," he assured her. "It just hurts at first." Seeing that her leg was still bleeding profusely, he went to take another look. "I'm going to need to wrap this in something to stop the bleeding."

"Okay," she agreed. She cast a look around them. "But what?"

Damon quickly took his top of and Elena had to look away to stop herself from blushing. She really shouldn't be having the thoughts that she was. He ripped the arms of his shirt and tied them securely around her open wound to add pressure and stop it bleeding out.

"That should hold it."

"Thank you," she whispered.

"No problem," he replied and she noticed he had a weird look in his eyes. Before she could think more about it, he spoke again.

"Where's your boyfriend?" Damon said

Elena shrugged. Damon's eyebrows rose and her non-committal response.

"Missing."

"Missing? And you're not crying?" he was completely surprised by the way she was acting.

"Oh believe me I had a nice cry about it the last few hours. Now I just feel numb. I think I agitated my wound by running all over this god-damn island trying to find him. Only those of us sitting at the front of the plane are here. I just have to hold onto the hope that he's safe." Damon watched her carefully, amazed by her strength and a little convinced that she was in shock, hence the almost too calm response.

Elena could tell that Damon wasn't all too convinced that she was with it. "I can feel it inside me that he's safe, you know?" Damon nodded, even though he totally didn't get it.

"So we've been here for a few hours already huh?"

"Yep," she replied popping the p.

"And blondie was screaming the whole time?"

"Yep," she said popping the p again.

"And no-one tried to shut her up?" he asked incredulously.

"Oh they tried. They just failed." Damon frowned at her response. It seemed he had magic powers when it came to shutting that girl up. He quickly turned to see if she was still in the same place as she was before. To his surprise she was actually calmly talking to some guy with short wavy almost curly sandy blonde hair.

"Do you mind letting me just have some space for a little while?" Elena asked swallowing a couple times. Damon's face showed that of confusion but he nodded his head.

Just before he turned to leave he added, "thanks for the help with the shoulder."

"Same for the leg."

As soon as he left the tears fell down her face. For a few minutes she had forgotten the heartbreak and general despair she had been feeling at not being able to find her boyfriend, Stefan. But it had come back again with a vengeance and she felt broken. All she could hold onto was hope. She had pretended to be strong when Damon had asked her about him but she was actually feeling lost. She didn't know how to go on without him. She didn't know if she could. She held onto denial. He was alive and he was somewhere on this island and he would find her.

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><p>Before long, darkness set in. Some of the surviving passengers had set up a fire whilst others were scavenging for ready-made meals that had been on the plane. Damon sat away from everyone else, contemplating just exactly how he had gotten into this position. He was unconsciously writing his name into the sand as he thought about how long it would be before they were rescued. Surely, it couldn't be too long even under the circumstances.<p>

Maybe this had been fate… telling him that he was never meant to meet his father. He had always had the feeling at the bottom of his stomach, telling him that he shouldn't care about his father. But he couldn't hold back the little boy in him that always wondered what his father was like. Maybe he had a good reason for walking out on him and his mum… maybe he didn't; maybe now he will never know.

He looked up from where he was sitting to look at all the people that were stuck with him. There were couples, young teenagers and siblings amongst them. He was just glad that there were no children. From what he could remember, he never saw any pesky children on-board the plane. This situation would be too traumatising for a child to live through. He could barely get through it. His eyes landed on the person he felt closest to on the island. He didn't know how she was coping with the highly-likely death of her boyfriend. He had seen her crying after their conversation but that didn't deter him from his opinion of her. She was strong. All the women he knew would have crumbled at the news, but she kept going. Although she wasn't talking to anyone, she was still there. She hadn't let herself fall into some catatonic state. She was dealing.

Before he could be left to ponder some more, someone took a seat next to him. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy handed him a ham and cheese sandwich. Damon has seen him earlier talking to the blonde girl with a huge set of lungs.

"I pinched it for you; one of the guys has stolen all the food and is trying to sell it to everyone. The idiot doesn't realise how worthless money is here," the guy spoke with a strong British accent.

"Thanks. I appreciate it. I'm Damon by the way," he said holding out his hand.

"Klaus," the guy replied taking Damon's extended hand.

"So what's your story?"

"My story?" Klaus asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Why were you on the plane?" Damon rephrased.

"Oh, my siblings, Rebekah and Elijah," Klaus began, pointing out the people he was referring to, "and I were going to LA to knock some sense to our other sibling Kol, who decided he wanted to quit college and just drink his way through life. What's your story?"

Damon narrowed his eyes, "I'm not one for sharing stories."

Klaus laughed, "Damn, I got played," he joked. "Well it was good to meet you buddy, but I spy a hot girl I want to talk to."

"You're picking a hot girl over me?" Damon questioned incredulously.

"Sorry mate, you just don't do it for me!" Klaus said walking away from Damon.

Damon wasn't left alone too long. Before he knew it, a familiar brunette had scooted into the British guy's spot, making sure not to irritate her leg. "Thank God, I thought the guy would never leave."

"Miss me already huh?"

Elena scoffed, "hardly."

"Hmm. I don't believe you."

"Well I don't need you to," she replied coolly, munching on a sandwich. Damon went to pick up the sandwich that Klaus had given him only to realise it was no longer where he placed it.

"What the hell?" he questioned, his eyes darting all around him, trying to spot where it had gone. His eyes snapped back to Elena.

"You sneaky little-"

"I'm going to stop you right there before you say anything too offensive."

"Too offensive! You stole my fucking sandwich! There's not thing I can say that would be too offensive after a crime like that," he cried out.

"Hey, you were the one who was wondering why I came over here."

"When did you even steal it?" Damon asked a hint of admiration in his voice.

"As soon as I sat down. You're easily distracted as soon as you see a girl," she explained. Damon rolled his eyes at her words.

"Couldn't you get the one yourself?" he grumbled.

"Couldn't you?" she replied smoothly.

"Touché." Elena smiled smugly at his approval. But it quickly slipped off her face when she realised that this was the first time she had smiled since discovering that Stefan was missing.

"To answer your question properly, there's a stupid guy hogging all the food," Elena started, taking another bite out of the sandwich.

"So I've heard," Damon commented.

"Anyway, I asked him for a sandwich and he said he'd give me one if I gave him a blow job and so I slapped him across the face and came up with the cunning plan to distract you and steal your food," she said nonchalantly.

Damon chuckled at her story. The girl got more intriguing every second he spent with her. Before Damon could say anything else, she gave him the rest of the sandwich. "I'd feel guilty if I ate the whole thing," she said as she stood up, leaning on one leg and wiped the sand off her shorts and hobbled away.

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><p>AN I hope you liked it. I quite liked the DE scene at the end; that was my favourite part. Oh for those of you who may not know I have another fic called 'Wrong Salvatore', so if you're bored and want a fic to read go check it out! Anyway, please leave a review, it is muchos appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

The tears continued to roll down Elena's face. She was so glad she had chosen a spot far away from everyone else to sleep. She hadn't got a wink of sleep all night, and she doubted she would get any at all for a while. Her thoughts went round and round in her head, always about Stefan. She wondered if he was by himself... how he was coping. She refused to let the dark thought of him possibly being dead into her head, it wasn't true. She knew it.

Hearing the feet of people shuffling around, Elena quickly wiped away all her remaining tears and sat up. She stretched her arms, her t-shirt riding up to expose her toned stomach as she did so. She wondered if her suitcase had survived the crash. She really needed to find more clothes, other than the ones she had found yesterday.

Damon rolled over in the sand. He'd only been able to sleep for an hour or so here and there. To say he was feeling grumpy would be the understatement of the year. He needed his sleep! Unfortunately, it looked like he wouldn't be getting anymore. It seemed his fellow plane-crash survivors did not have the respect to stay quiet as others were still sleeping.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes like a young child always does when they wake up. He could hear the bickering between a girl and guy from where he had been sleeping – well away from everyone else. Listening to yelling first thing in the morning after a night of terrible sleep was definitely not high up on the 'How to Keep Damon Happy' list.

He soon realised the only way to shut them up was to interfere seeing as no-one else seemed willing to do something about all the screeching.

"Will you two just shut the hell up? Do you not have any consideration for the eardrums of everybody else here?" he snapped as he approached a brown-haired guy and another blonde haired girl. He rolled his eyes, typical that yet another blonde haired girl had to be involved when there was shrieking.

From the corner of his eyes he saw Elena leaning against a tree snickering, undoubtedly from Damon's words. He smirked, proud of the reaction he had evoked in her. He quickly turned his attention back to the matter at hand. He noticed that the guy was glaring at him whereas the words didn't seem to have had an effect on the girl seeing as she was blatantly checking him out. His smirk grew; oh yeah he still had it.

"Care to explain the need for all the arguing?"

The guy pursed his lips. "Nosy much?" he sneered.

"I think I'm entitled to be seeing as I deserve to know the reason behind why you guys have decided to put me in a foul mood,' he snapped, not liking the attitude on the guy.

The girl decided it was time to speak up, "The mean guy won't share the food that was on the plane with anyone unless we give him money," she said in her best damsel-in-distress voice.

Elena mentally rolled her eyes. Could this girl be anymore desperate? She hoped Damon didn't fall for it.

"Seriously you're the imbecile that's stolen all the food? What's your name anyway?" he asked, less than impressed by what he was hearing. So this was the jerk that asked Elena to give him a blow job… he hated this guy already.

Before the other guy could respond the annoying girl jumped in, "His name is Mason and mine is Rebekah."

Damon inwardly groaned at her less than subtle attempt at letting him know her name. "Stop hogging the food and set up an area where you can put it so that everyone can share it. This isn't some twisted game. People need food to survive," he said harshly before turning to walk away from them.

As he was doing so the dick – that Damon now knew as Mason spoke up, "Who made you the leader? I can do whatever the hell I want."

Damon counted to five and slowly breathed in and out before turning around, had he not done so he would surely have clocked the smug dick. "I am not the leader. There is no leader. We all barely know each other. But right now, I'm the guy who's gonna kick your ass if you don't stop being selfish. Every man for himself is not gonna work, so man up and stop being self-centred. You never know when you're going to need someone else's help and at the rate you're going, no one will be willing to help you… ever," he said menacingly.

This time when he turned to leave, no-one stopped him.

Damon was pacing back a forth along a stretch of the island when he felt her presence behind him.

"Nice speech," she said smiling genuinely.

He narrowed his eyes at her, was she being sarcastic? "Thanks," he replied warily, discontinuing his pacing. "Was that it?" he asked not in the mood to talk to anyone… not even to the hot, sexy brunette.

"Ouch, I'm being dismissed so quickly. I'm not gonna take it personally."

"Maybe you should," he snapped. Elena narrowed her eyes, had she been any other girl she would have scampered away but somehow from knowing Damon just one day she knew he was just acting out and that he didn't actually want her leave – and she wasn't going to. Besides, she didn't want to leave.

"Wow, did you really think you were gonna scare me that easily? I'm not one of those other girls that run when you snap," she said defiantly.

He was quietly impressed by her attitude. The more time he spent with her, the more he liked her.

"Impressive Gilbert," he said taking a seat on the never-ending bay of sand.

"I aim to please," she said giving a non-committal shrug and taking a seat beside him.

"Well isn't that nice," he said waggling his eyebrows. Elena laughed at how he had twisted her words and bumped her shoulder against his in mock anger.

"So, how long do you think it'll take for us all to be rescued?" she asked timidly, picking up the sand and then dropping it repeatedly.

"Not long now. I'm sure we'll be on our way back very soon."

"You don't need to lie to me. You and I both heard the air hostess saying that the pilot had changed the course of the journey. God knows how long it will be before we're found."

Damon narrowed his eyes, "if you knew the truth then why did you ask me?"

Elena shrugged. "To see if you liked me enough to lie. I got my answer," she said cheekily.

"Ouch, you're just playing me today!"

"You're way too easy to manipulate," she admitted. "On a more serious note, I think we need to explore this island to find other food to eat, we're going to run out of food supplies very soon, especially if that dick continues to be… dickish." Damon laughed at her restriction and she felt a wave of pride run through her. She had made him laugh and now she was pretty certain his foul mood had disappeared.

"We should. I just don't know how everyone else is going to react," he admitted.

"We have to tell them what we heard. Like you said earlier, to survive we can't be selfish and that includes withholding information. They all deserve to know that it may take longer than expected to be found," she reasoned. He knew she was right; he just wasn't great with people interaction. To be honest, he found most people to be boring, self-righteous or incredibly annoying.

"Be my guest."

"That's also part of the reason I'm here."

Damon scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion. "To be my guest?"

"No," she chuckled, "to address the issue of leadership."

"What issue?" he asked warily with one eyebrow now raised. He wasn't liking where this question was going.

"These people need a leader. They're lost without a leader…" she trailed off, knowing he got her drift.

"And naturally I'm the best choice?" he laughed humourlessly. "I am definitely not the right one to lead these lost souls."

"But that's just it, you are!"

"No I'm not," he argued sceptically. "You really don't know much about it so no offence but you really don't know what you're talking about." He had been enjoying her company but now he just wanted her to leave him alone again. Her words were hitting home and she didn't even know it.

"I see the potential Damon. You have all the qualities of a good leader; you know how to make a decision. I've been watching you."

"Stalker!"

Elena rolled her eyes. "It's so typical that that is the only part you pick up on. Answer me honestly. If Mason became the leader would you actually listen to anything he said?"

"Yes," he mumbled.

"Is that so?" she asked trying to hold in her laughter at the thought of Damon listening to anything that came out of Mason's mouth.

"Ok, fine, you've proven your point."

"So you're going to try and be the leader?" she asked hopefully.

"I'll think about it. Why are you pushing so hard for this? Why don't you become the leader of this pack?"

Elena scoffed, "With people like Mason, I'm pretty sure they'll be sexist and think a woman couldn't do the job."

He nodded, "Well they have a point."

Elena's mouth dropped open at his comment and she gave him a forceful shove. "You did not just say that!"

Her pathetic shove had hardly moved him from his spot. He chuckled, "You're way too easy to wind up." Elena rolled her eyes at his phrasing. "So I haven't seen you talk to anyone else, I mean I know I'm hot and it's hard to tear yourself away from me but –"

"Oh shut up!" she said interrupting him. "I have actually spoken to other people, thank you very much."

"Name one other person you've spoken to," Damon challenged.

She sat and thought for a few seconds quickly realising that Damon was possibly right. "Oh! I spoke to Mason," she said proudly.

Damon scoffed, "trying to get food from someone does not count as a conversation."

"Yes, well who else have you spoken to, huh?" she asked not wanting the spotlight to stay on her.

"Klaus," he replied swiftly.

"The British guy that took ages to leave yesterday, prolonging my attack to steal your sandwich?"

"Yep," he said popping the 'p'.

"Hmm," she replied as a comfortable silence fell upon them.

He stared at the ground. For some reason at this very moment in time he felt peace. Despite all the crazy drama surrounding his life and lives of the other survivors he had a feeling of contentment.

He couldn't understand his friendship with Elena. He had never had a close friend that was a girl before. He hadn't seen the point in ever getting to know any girl. He was a bang 'em and leave 'em kinda guy… he hadn't ever wanted to connect to girl ever again after _her_. But somehow talking to Elena was different. He wasn't looking for friendship and yet somehow it had crept up on him. He hadn't even realised that he had started caring about her. So many times he had wanted to ask her about how she was feeling about her boyfriend during their conversation but somehow he didn't know how to broach that subject. He wasn't good with the deep conversation. But he wanted to know how she was coping… how could she still be smiling? And how was she getting on with her life? Wasn't everything supposed to go haywire once you lost the one you loved? Was she that far in denial that it hadn't fully dawned on her that he was gone?

She sat there surrounded by their comfortable silence. The cool summer breeze and sunshine making her glow. She felt guilty. She felt guilty because in this moment in time she felt calm and content. Her boyfriend was missing. How the hell was she so calm? She didn't understand. She knew she wasn't mourning him because she knew he wasn't dead. She would feel it if he was. But still she felt guilty, she was meant to go look for him. But something held her back and she didn't know what it was: a force of some kind, an instinct, a higher power? She didn't know what it was but it prevented her from scouring every inch of this god-damn island to find Stefan.

He didn't know how long he and Elena had sat there in their own worlds. He didn't really care how much time had passed by. He only broke their silence seeing her wince a little as she moved her leg.

"Is the leg causing you pain?" he asked concerned. "I told you to stay off it."

"Mmm nothing I can't handle. So ready to face everyone?"

He let out a deep breath, "Now's as good a time as any."

Everyone was scattered along the stretch of sand. Damon and Elena approached individuals and asked them all to meet at a certain spot in an hour.

As everyone sat around in a circle Damon began to feel nervous. He was about to crush the hopes of everyone sitting there thinking they were going to be rescued any minute now.

"Guys we have something that we need to tell you," Elena started. He was relieved that she had taken the lead. He wasn't joking when he said he thought she'd make a great leader.

"You don't need to give an official statement that you're shacking up!" Mason shouted.

"What?" she cried in confusion.

"You wanted to tell us you and Mr Sexy Blue Eyes are an item right?" a British girl with short-brown hair guessed.

"No that's not what we were going to say," Elena replied blushing a deep red colour, "We're not together," she hastily added gesturing between her and Damon.

"Oh," she said. "So why the gathering?"

"Whilst we were on the plane we over heard one of the air hostesses telling another that the pilot was flying completely off-course as there was an extreme fog in the direction we were meant to be flying. We were over 1000 miles off course. It means that they're looking for us in the completely wrong place," Damon explained.

Silence fell amongst the survivors as they tried to process the new information. They weren't going to be saved… not anytime soon.

"Are you sure?" a blonde-haired man spoke up for the first time.

"Positive," Damon replied nodding his head.

"What are we going to do then? We're running out of supplies as it is!" Klaus pointed out.

"I'm going to head into the forest tomorrow and look for a fresh source of water and see if there are any fruits on trees that we can live off of."

"Okay that sounds good," the short-haired brunette said nodding along to his plan. "How long do you think it'll be before we get found then?"

Damon sighed, "I honestly don't know."

* * *

><p>Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting this story! It truly means a lot to me<p>

Twitter: CosmicButton


	4. Chapter 4

Damon zipped up the backpack he had found amongst the pile of rubble accumulated from the plane crash. He made a mental note to go through the junk that was still on the plane to see if there was anything else useful still there. He was making his way towards Klaus when his pathway was intercepted by Elena.

"And where do you think you're going?" she asked sternly.

"Err to the forest to find us food and water?" he asked, not sure if it was the right answer. Didn't she know what he was doing?

"And where am I going?"

"Nowhere, you're staying here," he replied strictly, catching her drift.

"Wrong answer."

"No, right answer," he argued as he walked around and passed her.

She grabbed his arm as he tried to leave her behind and she just about managed to drag him back in front of her.

"I'm coming with you," she said determinedly.

"No way in hell, Elena."

"Why not? I can look after myself; you don't need to worry about me getting killed by a vampire or something!"

"No Elena," he said dead set on his decision.

"But why not?" she asked again, "I thought you weren't like the others. I thought you weren't sexist."

He sighed, "That's not it and you know it."

"Then why not?" she asked a third time.

"Because your freaking leg is injured!" he yelled back, losing his cool.

"It's fine! I can still do the trip."

"No you can't," he said firmly in a voice that said the matter would no longer be discussed.

Elena frowned and looked away as she realised what this was a reminder of. Stefan always told her what to do in their relationship. Why did it not bother her as much when he did it? When Damon bossed her around she wanted to strangle him for not letting her do what she wanted to do. It must be because he has no rights… Stefan can tell her what to do because he's her boyfriend, right?

She had every intention of following them but when she looked up, both he and Klaus had disappeared from sight. She huffed and fell in a heap onto the never-ending plane of sand.

Klaus and Damon trekked through the dense forest finding different fruits that could help postpone starvation amongst the survivors.

"So, you and the brunette seem pretty close," Klaus fished.

Damon narrowed his eyes. He didn't like anyone prying into his private, personal life. But when exactly did Elena become part of his private life?

"We were sitting next to each other on the plane," Damon said as though that would explain everything.

"And now you have feelings for each other?" Klaus pushed.

Damon scoffed. "No. We're just friends. Her boyfriend most likely died in the crash seeing as I saw him in the back half of the plane that came away from the front half whilst mid-air. She's still in denial and until she confronts those feelings she definitely won't be moving on."

"So you want her to get over those feelings so she can be with you?" Klaus deduced.

Damon did not like where this conversation was headed. "That is not what I said. Besides, I'm a wham-bam-thankyou-mam kinda guy. I don't do relationships."

"Why not? Relationships are great!" Klaus argued.

"This conversation is over," Damon said with a finality that informed Klaus that the conversation was indeed over. It seemed he had a talent at stopping conversations whenever he wanted to.

"So, you know you're kind of impressive."

"Please stop hitting on me," Damon drawled. "I'm into girls. Sorry."

"I'm not hitting on you!" Klaus shouted indignantly.

"Sure sounded like you were to me."

"I mean that it's impressive how you've coped with this situation. Everyone here has been running around like a headless chicken and yet here you are, cool, calm and collected."

Damon narrowed his eyes. What Klaus was saying was true. Wow, who knew he was so good under pressure? "I guess I'm just used to stressful situations."

"Come on man, no other stressful situation can compare to this. We're stranded on an island where there is hardly any food and no water or shelter for us to use to survive. We're fucked."

"Well I've just found a solution to one of our problems."

"What?" Klaus asked in confusion

"Shhhh! What do you hear?" Klaus shut up and tried to listen out for whatever it was that Damon could hear. His eyes widened at the noise. The sound of rushing water was ringing loudly. How had he missed it?

A grin spread across Damon's face. They had water! The twosome raced across the forest, to where the sound of the water was coming from. They were definitely getting closer, if the increase in the amplitude of the sound was anything to go by.

They pushed all the branches and leaves behind them as they charged their way through. Damon was in front, and so when he came to an immediate stop, Klaus ran smack into him. Damon turned to glare at him as he held his hands up in a gesture that claimed it wasn't his fault.

"You should've given me some warning," Klaus said.

"And you should look where you're going," Damon bit back.

Klaus looked around Damon to see that they had indeed stopped because they had reached their destination. A waterfall.

"It's clean water. We can bottle it up and bring it back for the others," Damon said giving out the commands.

"Errrm about that…" Klaus stuttered.

"What?" Damon said warily, preparing himself for what was about to leave the British guy's mouth.

"I may or may not have forgotten the empty water bottles back on the beach."

"You did what?" Damon shouted.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile back on the beach, Elena's anger towards Damon has slowly dissipated and now she was bored. She needed someone to distract her or else she'd go back to wondering about Stefan and that never left her with positive thoughts.<p>

It was then that she noticed a girl walking in front of her and she called out to her.

"Hey you!"

The girl turned in her direction and her eyebrows scrunched together. "Me?" she asked.

"Yes, you. What's your name?"

"Caroline Forbes," she said as she walked closer and sat next to Elena. "Yours?"

"Elena."

"So why did you call me over?" Caroline asked curiously.

Elena shrugged, "I don't know. I just thought it would be a good idea to get to know everyone here. We're all forever bonded to each other. No-one else out there will know what it is like to be stranded on this island."

Caroline nodded her head. "I know what you mean, I kind of feel all alone now."

Elena's face softened and she grabbed Caroline's hand and held it in her own. "You're not alone. We're all here for you. So anyone here catch your eye?" Elena asked trying to lighten the mood.

"Well there is this one guy."

"Oh there is a guy!" Elena said nudging Caroline playfully. "Who is it?" she asked curiously.

"I'm not saying," Caroline replied motioning zipping her lips and throwing the key away.

"No way. I'm not letting you get away without telling me!"

Caroline being awful at keeping her mouth shut, caved, "It's Klaus."

"Wow, that was incredibly easy to get out of you. And Klaus, the British guy that went off into the woods? Really?" Elena asked not getting it.

"I'm really bad at keeping secrets, as you shall soon learn as our friendship continues to grow," Caroline smiled. "And hey, what is wrong with Klaus?"

"Besides the name?"

"The name is very cool! It's not incredibly common like mine so I like it," Caroline said indignantly. "He's been nothing but kind to me since this whole debacle. Besides, he's funny and sweet."

Elena smiled at how affectionately Caroline spoke about Klaus. "Hey, if you like him, then I like him."

"Thanks. Besides, you're hardly one to talk. At least my guy isn't a douchy playboy like your guy!" Caroline's eyes widened realising how rude her comments were. "Oh my God I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you."

"My guy?" Elena asked confused. "Stefan?"

"I thought his name was Damon." Caroline stated.

"Damon?" Elena repeated.

Caroline nodded her head in affirmation. "Oh we're not together. We're really not together. Like at all," Elena rushed getting flustered. Did everyone seem to think they were getting together? Hadn't they cleared these rumours up yesterday?

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm very sure," Elena said nodding her head. "I have a boyfriend. He was on the plane with me."

Caroline was confused, where was this guy then? Her eyes widened, "did he die in the crash?" she asked sympathetically with little tact.

"No!" Elena said confidently, "he's just missing. He's not dead."

"Did you look at all the bodies we found to make sure he's not amongst them?" Caroline asked tentatively.

"Yes, he's not there." It had taken her a long time after the crash to gather the courage to inspect the mass of bodies from those who did not survive. She had prayed every time she looked at a body that it would not be Stefan. She had to hold back the urge to vomit everytime she inspected a bloody face. She was relieved when she couldn't find him. There was still a chance.

Before they could continue talking, Elena saw Damon and Klaus coming out of the forest out of the corner of her eye. She had no idea why but for some reason she felt calmer seeing that they were back. She tried to read their body language to see if the trip went well but it seemed she was rubbish at reading people.

She said a quick bye to Caroline and marched over to the boys.

"How did it go?" she asked eagerly.

"Oh just peachy," Damon said, sarcasm lacing his voice.

She was confused by his response. "What am I missing here?"

"Mr. Forgetful over here forgot to bring the empty water bottles and so we have to make the trip again!" Damon said clearly still annoyed at Klaus.

Klaus had nothing to say, still embarrassed by his mistake. "Wait so you found fresh water? Are you going back today to collect some?"

"Yep, as soon as I grab the bottles."

"I'm not coming," Klaus said quickly.

"What?"

"I'm tired. Besides I've had my fill of Mr. Cranky Pants for today," he said clearly having had enough of Damon's foul attitude. Damon scowled at him as he walked off.

"Okay I guess I'm going on my own."

"No way!" Elena said indignantly. "It's too dark for you to be out there on your own."

Damon smirked, "Don't worry sweetheart, I don't have a curfew. I'm used to the dark. In fact, I like to think of myself as a creature of the night."

Elena had to bite back her snarky comments; she wouldn't sink to his level. Clearly Klaus' mistake had once again put him in an obnoxiously bad mood. "Damon, it's not safe and you know it. God knows what dangerous animals there are in there."

"We're not going to last until tomorrow with the water supply and it's highly likely I'll forget the pathway by tomorrow," Damon reasoned. He had no idea why he was reasoning with her; didn't he usually do whatever the hell he wanted?

"Okay, well if you insist on going back tonight can we at least tell everyone that you found a source of fresh water and need someone to tag along with you to collect it," she suggested. Damon sighed but agreed to do it. Everyone may as well know there was more water available. It would stop the panicking.

Elena grabbed the whistle that hung around her neck and blew it loudly three times to get everyone's attention. Damon raised an eyebrow at her actions.

"What? I found it in the wreckage and thought it could be handy," she justified.

"Hey, I didn't say anything," he chuckled.

"Everyone we have important, good news! Please can you come over here!" she yelled as loud as she could. She was amazed that everyone, including that God-awful Mason listened to her and made their way towards her.

They all sat around her in a circle and she suddenly felt really embarrassed being the centre of attention.

"Okay, I'm gonna let Damon take over," she said quickly, joining the others sitting in a circle. Damon laughed, noticing her sudden shy nature.

"Klaus and I went into the forest today to see if we could find food, water and shelter supplies seeing as we're running pretty low because we're having to share amongst the nine of us. We brought back lots of fruits and nuts and found a huge waterfall i.e. fresh water and so I'm going to head back in to get some water. Does anyone want to join me?"

Everyone seemed to be smiling at the fact that they had found some food and water but no-one seemed to want to make the journey back into the forest with him.

"Does no-one want to help me?" he repeated. Was everyone here that selfish that they wanted to reap the rewards and not put any effort in?

"We'd love to Damon-" the woman with the short brown hair that had made a comment last night said, speaking up again.

"Great," Damon interrupted.

"But it's going to get really dark by the time we make our way back and I'm too scared to be in the woods at that time. I'm sorry," she apologised. Damon sighed, was he the only one who wasn't scared? Wasn't it scarier to starve or die from thirst? Surely one of the guys would be willing to come.

"And what about you guys?" Damon asked.

"I'm sorry Damon but Matt and I have blisters all along our feet from carrying the wood back and forth to make our shelter. We wouldn't last a trip through the woods without collapsing," Klaus' brother said pointing towards their creation.

"And I don't want to go because I can't spend hours with a prick like you without committing suicide," Mason said smugly.

"Damn, I wish you would come now," Damon said seriously. "Okay, I guess I'm going alone then. Thanks for the help guys," Damon sarcastically said as he made his way over to the rucksack filled with empty water bottles, and left everyone behind feeling guilty.

Elena ran awkwardly, with her injured leg, after him and grabbed his arm to stop him from entering the woods.

"Damon, please don't go!"

Damon sighed. "I did what you asked Elena and no-one wants to go so I'm going alone," he explained harshly.

"I know, but I don't feel comfortable letting you go by yourself."

"Well not everything is about your comfort," he growled.

"I know and not everything is about yours, so I'm coming with you."

"Elena-" Damon began about to argue with her just like had that morning.

"You don't have to say a word to me on this trip. You're not my father, you can't tell me what to do. I'm coming, injured leg and all and you're just going to have to deal with it." The anger in which she said it surprised Damon. He really didn't have the energy to argue with her and to be honest it wasn't like he didn't want her company; he was just looking out for her well-being.

"Fine, come then, but if you're too slow I'm just going to ditch you," he lied.

The walk through the forest was pretty silent, both parties still annoyed at the other. Damon had to help Elena climb over some of the rocks which meant a lot of skin to skin contact which really wasn't helping keep the lust he felt for her at bay. Needing to get those less than innocent thoughts out of his mind, he thought it would be a good idea to start a conversation and distract himself.

"So how old are you anyway?"

"Twenty three, you?"

"Twenty seven. How long have you been with your ex-boyfriend?"

"What is this? Question time?" Elena asked.

"I touched a nerve didn't I?"

Elena scowled before answering, "Since the beginning of college." She was thankful when he didn't ask any more questions seeing as they had reached their destination.

Her breathed hitch and her mouth fell open in awe at the beauty in front of her. The water was gushing down the waterfall and birds were chirping happily all around. The sun was setting, casting a beautiful red colour all around. She wished she had a camera to capture nature at its best.

Before she knew what she was doing she ripped off her tank top and shorts and jumped into the calm river that was connected to the waterfall.

Damon's jaw dropped in awe and in shock. Had Elena really just stripped down into her underwear and jumped into the water? She dipped her head under water and then started swimming as though it was the most normal thing to do.

"Are you gonna stand there gawking all day or are you going to join me?" she called out. He blinked many times, taking in her words before realising what an idiot he was being standing there. He quickly stripped down to his boxers and jumped into the water, joining her. Elena had no idea what had possessed her to do such a daring thing. This was definitely not like her.

Before she could take the invitation back though, his head popped up from the water right next to her. He was grinning; he finally seemed relax, like all the tension had seeped out of him and for that reason she couldn't feel guilty for what she had said and done.

"Oh my God, this is amazing! Just what I needed and the water isn't even freezing!" Damon said excitedly. She was amazed by his reaction and found this new side to his personality endearing.

She would have liked to have enjoyed this peaceful moment for longer, but alas, the god of the seas had different ideas. A strong tide pushed by causing her to lose her balance and collapse into Damon.

Her eyes closed in fear at the strength of the tide, but the next thing she knew it was over and there were no other sets of waves. She opened her eyes to see the brightest, more gorgeous cerulean eyes looking back at her. It was only then that she realised her whole body was pressed against Damon. She was literally wrapped around him.

He had to contain his groan as he felt Elena's long bare legs wrapped around his hips. God knew just how much he wanted to thrust against her.

Her hands were pressed against his chest and she could feel every ripple of it on her fingertips. She had no idea how long she had stayed shocked in that position but her skin burned and that jolted her back into reality. She quickly jumped away from him, her eyes wide. What the hell was she supposed to say?

"I'm so sorry. The wave came by and I just lost my balance because of my leg and I fell forward. I really didn't mean-" Elena tried to explain without stuttering.

"It's okay I get it," he replied stoically. An uncomfortable silence fell amongst them.

"It's getting late; maybe we should just get the water and make our way back to the beach?" Elena suggested wanting to be busy so that she no longer had to think about how wonderful his body felt pressed up against hers.

"Sure, sounds like a good idea." He made his way out of the river as Elena turned away whilst he got changed. He did the same for her using all his will power not to sneak a peek at her.

* * *

><p>Twitter: CosmicButton<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" a British girl's voice rung out behind Damon.

He turned around and squinted his eyes at her. "Rose, right?"

"Yeah," she said warily. "I answered your question now you need to answer mine."

He chuckled. "I'm searching through all this rubble trying to find anything that could be of use."

"And you plan on sharing your findings?" she asked.

"Hey, was finding a source of water not enough to prove my selflessness?"

"Yes well with guys like Mason around hogging all that they can find, I'm not in a very trusting mood."

Damon nodded his head. "Okay, I see your point," he said as he continued to collect items from within the remains of the plane they had all once been flying in.

"Find anything of use then?" she asked, "or has Mason stolen it all?"

"Hmm well it seems the dick didn't have the patience to properly search every nook and cranny of this mass of rubble so there's actually quite a lot of useful things here," he said finding a suitcase full of girl's clothes. That could be Rebekah's; she had been screeching incessantly about how all of her clothes were gone. Damon silently prayed that is was hers because he didn't think he could last another day of her complaining.

"So anything specific that was a good find?" she asked as she joined him, rummaging through all the remains.

"Errm well I found some roofies. I'm guessing they belong to Mason."

Rose turned to look at him, "Are you serious?" she asked.

Damon let out a hearty laugh. "Yes I am. That being said they may have been prescribed to someone who's having trouble sleeping. See anyone like that here?"

She shook her head; she hadn't noticed anyone particularly finding it hard to sleep.

"Yep same here. My best guess is therefore that they are roofies belonging to Mason," he joked.

Before Rose could respond Damon's favourite brunette joined them.

"Hey, what are you guys up to?" she asked her eyes lingering on Rose.

"Searching for useful items… and roofies," the British girl said as she and Damon laughed at their inside joke. Elena frowned, she was confused.

"Oh, Elena, did you find your suitcase of clothes?" Damon asked stopping his search through the rubble for a few seconds. He glanced at her clothes to see she was wearing a stripy red and blue tank top and comfy tan shorts which meant her tanned gorgeous legs were on full display. Well one smooth, gorgeous leg, the other one still had a cloth wrapped around it. Even so he very much appreciated the view. Her hair was plaited neatly to the side so that her glowing face was in full view.

"Errm yeah, I found it yesterday, why?"

"Oh nothing. Don't worry," he said tearing his eyes away from her and going back to searching through the rubble.

"Mind if I join?" Elena asked.

"No, go ahead. The more of us there are the quicker this banal task will go," Damon assured her.

Elena immediately went to a corner of the plane that looked untouched but as she approached the area the whole plane shook a little causing Rose to scream.

"Whoa Elena be careful! We survived the crash, let's not die now," Damon said.

"Sorry!" she called out, walking slower towards her destination.

She rummaged through the untouched rubble carefully making sure not to move jerkily and cause the plane to wobble. She removed pieces of broken chairs and trays before she grinned widely at what she had just discovered.

"Lookie what I found!" she said gleefully holding up a bottle of vodka in one hand and bottle of bourbon in the other.

Damon looked at Elena's hands and his face lit up to match hers.

"Good find," he smiled.

"Well then you're gonna love the fact that there's a whole crateful of this stuff here," she signalled with her eyes.

"I could kiss you right now Elena!"

Her heart beat faster hearing his words. "I'd rather you didn't," she said playing along.

"Well done Elena," Rose said putting on a smile, wishing she had found the alcohol.

"We should save some of it, for injuries. I might apply some to your leg, which reminds me that I need to look at it. I need to make sure it's healing correctly. But with the rest of the alcohol, I guess we could have a party!"

"That's a good idea. It will help keep people happy as well," Rose added.

Damon moved to where Elena was standing to help her with the crate of alcohol that had obviously been part of the drinks provided by the airlines during flight.

"Hmm it seems we didn't need to go find that water. We could have all just had these drinks and gotten drunk from the start," Elena joked as they heaved the alcohol out of the plane, careful not to fall.

"Here let me take it. You shouldn't be putting any strain on your leg," he said carrying the crate himself.

The other survivors cheered when they saw the threesome arrive with the bottles of alcohol.

"Looks like we're having a party tonight guys!" Damon shouted in joy. He was glad to see people smiling at the idea of not moping around for another night.

"Oh Elena, come over to this side with me so I can have a look at your leg," he said moving away from Rose. Elena followed him a smile on her face as she passed Rose.

They sat down on a stretch of sand secluded from the others. They hadn't been alone together since the 'innocent swimming became sensual touching' event, as Elena liked to refer to it as.

"Okay let me have a look," he said holding onto her leg and undoing the cloth that was tied around her wound. He inspected her scabbed wound carefully for any signs of infection.

"Hmm, it looks to have healed quite nicely, but I'm just going to apply a little alcohol to it just in case because some of the gash hasn't healed over," he informed, "probably because you keep walking around despite my advice." He shot her a playful glare to show that although he was serious about it, he wasn't too angry at her for ignoring his advice.

He poured some alcohol onto her smooth leg – she had found a razor to shave her legs with, if she was stuck here she may as well try her best to stay pretty especially when she was constantly in the presence of a gorgeous raven-haired man. She winced as soon as the alcohol reached her open wounds.

"Sorry, forgot to warn you that it would hurt," he apologised.

He proceeded to rub in the alcohol, caressing her legs as he did so. Somehow through the pain, his caresses were proving to be a huge turn on for Elena. Oh god, what the hell was wrong with her? She should not be feeling this way.

"So, did you find any food on the plane?" she asked him trying to keep herself pre-occupied so her thoughts wouldn't linger on things that they shouldn't. She bit her lip to suppress a moan as he rubbed her calves softly.

"A little. But you're not having any," he said pointedly.

"What why not?" she asked a little outraged at his selfishness.

"Err because you stole my sandwich, I'm still not over that if you haven't noticed."

"But I left some of it for you!"

"Doesn't mean you didn't take it in the first place," he argued. She frowned. Was he being serious? "Okay I'll share it with you on one condition," he said seriously.

"Okay sure, what?" she said not really caring what he wanted, not when she was craving food right now.

He motioned for her to come closer to him. She leaned forward so that her head was inches away from his. He breathed into her ear heavily causing her to bite her lip again. "I'll give you all the food in the world if you give me a blowjob," he whispered.

Elena's eye bugged out of her sockets as he began laughing. She shoved him hard so that he was lying fully down on the sand.

"You're such a jerk! You and Mason should just be best friends," she concluded unable to stop herself from joining in with his laughter – it was contagious!

"I can't believe you didn't work out what I was going to ask," he said in between laughs.

"I'm sorry I didn't realise I was friends with a two year-old," she said sarcastically.

"Damn what two-year olds do you know asking for a blow job?" Elena rolled her eyes.

"You know what I mean!" she said in frustration, giving him another little shove.

"I love frustrating you," he admitted smiling. How was she supposed to stay mad him when he looked so cute smiling?

"So what do I have to do to get a share of the food?" she asked, desperate to eat something. If she didn't find anything soon, she'd eat him – she wasn't all that against cannibalism.

He motioned for her to come closer to him again. She raised an eyebrow as if to say 'really?' She did as he asked anyway. It wasn't like it was torture to be closer to him.

He whispered into her ear, "absolutely nothing sweetheart." He laughed at her expression before getting up, taking a packet of cookies that he had found, out of the right pocket of his shorts and giving it to her. She didn't hesitate to rip it open and gobble down the treats. She smiled appreciatively to him as he walked away.

* * *

><p>Everyone was gathered around the fire they had started up in good spirits. This was the first night that they were all actually spending together. Even Mason got his head stuck out of his ass long enough to join them – probably because of the free alcohol. Damon sat beside Elijah, who seemed like a cool, honourable man to him, and on his other side sat Rebekah.<p>

People were singing along to classics such as 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Some were even belting out the words as they were already very tipsy. Damon had removed three large bottles of vodka in case a freak event was to occur in which people sustained severe injuries.

"Y'all we should play a game!" the guy called Matt suggested – he was one of the ones close to passing out soon.

"What kind of game?" Caroline asked, her interest piqued.

"A drinking game of course," Mason pointed out. Caroline rolled her eyes.

"I knew that you idiot. I meant what drinking game?" she clarified.

"Okay. Seeing as we hardly know each other let's all play a game where you ask someone a personal question and if they answer it truthfully then they take a swig of their drink and if they don't they have to take two," Rose suggested.

Everyone seemed to like the game, well everyone except for Damon. He wasn't really into revealing his personal trials and tribulations but he didn't want to be the party-pooper who refused to take part.

"But wait, how do we decide who the winner is?" Caroline enquired, her competitive nature coming to the forefront.

"Well it's the last person to pass out obviously," Rose explained. "So, who's first?"

"I'll ask first!" Klaus volunteered. "Caroline, do you own a vibrator?" he asked smugly as some of the guys burst out laughing. He'd have never had the courage to ask such a bold question had he not been on his merry way to drunkland.

"Seriously, this is your question?" Caroline huffed as she looked at everyone who seemed to be eager to know the answer,

"Yep," he said popping the 'p'.

She sighed, took a swig of her drink and answered, "Yes I do." Elena was impressed at her ability to answer without being embarrassed. Had that been her she certainly would have just taken the easy way out even though she wanted to win. She had a high alcohol tolerance so she had the ability to skip a question here or there.

Half an hour passed in which people asked some of the weirdest questions Elena had ever heard. People seemed to just want the juicy gossip about everyone's' lives rather than the fine details. Elena had gotten away with being asked pretty easy questions. All that people had found out about her was that she was a lawyer who had only ever had one boyfriend whom she had met in her first year of college. She was asked whether she had ever given a guy a blowjob- the question had obviously been asked by Mason – and she chose to take two drinks rather than reveal intimate details of her sex life.

Damon hadn't been quite so lucky. A lot of the girls' questions had been directed at him – only Elena hadn't seemed too bothered to know more about him. People had found out that he was a twenty seven year-old, free-lance photographer who enjoyed rough sex. It was also common knowledge that he'd only ever had one serious relationship.

Five more minutes passed by and they seemed to be the critical five minutes in which people dropped like flies. First to pass out was the light-weight Matt who to be honest was nearing completely drunk when the game began. Next to lose were Rebekah, Rose and then Mason (who Damon took pleasure in seeing pass out so early on).

Having a quick scan of the remaining players it seemed that Klaus and Elijah would soon fall. It surprisingly seemed like the girls would be Damon's biggest competition. Caroline looked tipsy but Elena looked pretty unaffected. Truth be told he didn't think many questions had come her way. An evil grin worked its way onto his face. He wasn't going to let her win. As he had thought, within ten minutes Klaus and Elijah were both gone leaving the two girls and Damon to continue the game.

"I'm so gonna win!" Elena sang.

"In your dreams sweetheart," Damon sang back as Caroline giggled at the pair of them. Yep, she would definitely be next to go, he thought.

"Favourite author, Damon?" Caroline asked. Her questions were becoming more boring as it took too much effort to think of better ones, especially when her mind was going at a million miles per hour.

"John Green," he answered not missing a beat and taking a gulp of bourbon.

"The guy who wrote 'The Fault In Our Stars' and 'Looking For Alaska'?" Elena questioned.

"Yep," Damon said surprised that she knew the author.

"Interesting."

Damon's eyebrows furrowed. Was that all she was going to say? "What do you mean, interesting?" he asked annoyed by her comment.

"It's just he writes some of the saddest books. I didn't peg you as a guy that loved to read depressing books," she explained.

"They're sad because they're touching."

"Hey, I'm not arguing."

It was only then that they realised the chatty blonde had been quiet for too long. A quick glance at her confirmed their suspicions that she had indeed passed out. She was lying at right angles to Klaus with her head lying on his chest.

"And then there were two," Damon said dramatically causing Elena to giggle. He smiled smugly, the alcohol was hitting her. He had this win in the bag!

"Have you ever been married?" she asked on a limb. She saw something in his eyes shift at her words.

Damon smiled, wasted question. "No," he said as he drank a mouthful of his drink.

"How old were you when you lost your virginity?" he asked. Elena thought about not answering the question, but she desperately wanted to win in order to wipe the smug grin of Damon's face but at the rate that she was going she was likely to pass out soon.

"I've only been in one serious relationship," she said reiterating her answer to an earlier question.

"That doesn't answer the question," he said watching her shrewdly as her answer started to make sense to him. He smirked.

She sighed, "Nineteen," she gulped her vodka and avoided looking at his teasing face.

"Have you ever been engaged?" she asked, going off the gut feeling she had in response to her marriage question.

Damon thought about not answering when he realised that not answering would just give away the answer. "Yes," he answered detachedly. "Relationship with your mum?"

She narrowed her eyes, "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," he laughed.

She sighed. "Strained."

"Why is that?"

"Uh uh uh," she said waggling her fingers back and forth, "it's my turn now." Damon scowled, he'd been caught out.

"Why is your relationship with your father strained?" she guessed, rephrasing Damon's original question.

Damn, she was good. He didn't want to answer but both of them were so close to passing out he figured she would most likely not remember any of his confessions.

"He walked out on my mum before I was even born," he said looking down at the sand, pushing back any feelings that came to the surface.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "You don't deserve it." She leaned forward to cup his cheeks but he shook her off, not wanting her sympathy.

"It doesn't matter." She wanted to argue with him but then felt that it wasn't her place to do so. She'd only known him for a few days.

"So, favourite sexual position?" Damon asked trying to steer the conversation as far away from depressing personal issues as much as possible. Somehow the mention of his 'father' had sobered him up and now he felt like he could keep going for a long time.

"Don't have one," she mumbled.

Damon's eyebrows furrowed, "What do you mean you don't have one? Everyone has one!" he pointed out.

"That's another question!"

"You didn't answer the question properly!"

"Yes I did," she argued, her chin jutting out in defiance.

"No you didn't," he argued just as strongly.

"Fine then, missionary."

Thank god Damon had not been having a swig of his drink as he surely would have spat it out. "Missionary is your favourite sex position?" he repeated in a daze.

"Yes."

"Is it the only position you've tried?" he asked still not understanding how that could be.

"I'm not answering that."

"Oh my God, it is isn't it?" he said laughing as she turned red.

"Next question: why did you drop out of medical school?" she asked, ceasing Damon's laughter.

"Personal reasons." He took his last swig of bourbon as he stood up to find more – swaying a lot before finding his balance.

"That is not an answer!"

"Hey two can play at this vague answers game." He walked behind her and grabbed Elijah's unfinished bottle of bourbon and smiled.

She scowled but couldn't come up with a sufficient argument to refute his. Just as she came up with a good retort, she turned to look at him, only to find he – like the others- had passed out.

She smiled triumphantly. She won! It was only then that she realised how winning sucked in this game as she had no-one to celebrate with and she couldn't even rub it in their faces seeing as they were all knocked out. She sighed, moving to where Damon had collapsed. She pushed back strands of his hair that had been falling into his eyes. Despite their little game, this guy was still a mystery to her.

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><p>AN I'm so sorry this took so long to update! I'm really not great at balancing two fics at the same time. Anyway, I hope you haven't all forgotten this story and that you enjoyed this chapter. Unfortunately, this fic will be on a mini hiatus until July but that's purely because of exams. I promise I have not abandoned it! Please leave a review; it really gives a lot of encouragement.

Twitter: CosmicButton  
>LJ: miss_asha_s<br>Polyvore: cosmicbutton(dot)polyvore(dot)com – Elena's outfit is on here!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N I'm so very sorry about how long this took! Also, the wonderful Anne (Tw-Erdbeerchen) made a banner for this fic. The link to it can be found on my profile. It's stunning!

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><p>Damon woke up to the sound of someone retching their guts out. It wasn't pleasant. Thankfully his stomach didn't seem to be giving him any troubles. It was probably the years and years he had spent building up his tolerance and dealing with hangovers that meant he didn't suffer all that much anymore.<p>

He blinked a couple times trying to get used to the sunlight. He tried to get up but found it was a lot harder than it should have been. It was only then that he realised there was another body on top of him. He looked down to find Elena's sleeping body sprawled out and tangled with his. Her head was snuggled in his chest, using it like a pillow. His left leg was buried in between hers as her right arm wrapped around his waist, keeping him locked in place. How the hell had he not noticed her on top of him as soon as he woke up?

He took a deep breath but soon realised what a mistake that was. The unique smell of citrus fruits and something that was just pure Elena filled his nostrils and did wonders to his insides. He needed to get this girl away from him before he crossed any lines.

He tried to wake her up by calling out her name but that didn't seem to work. So he went to plan B and shook his body from side to side which led to her immediately rolling off him and burying her face in the sand. It was only then that he realised that they hadn't fallen asleep on blankets and so there was sand in places that there definitely should not be sand. He glanced at Elena again and started to worry, could she breathe with her face down in the sand? He decided it would be best to shake her awake. Giving her a couple nudges worked much more effectively than calling out her name as she came back to consciousness within seconds.

She blinked multiple times, much like he had when he woke up before she groaned and pressed her hand against her pounding forehead.

"Oh God, what the hell happened?" her voice scratchy as she asked herself the question, not acknowledging Damon's presence. She started spitting out sand that had somehow gotten into her mouth. "Oh God, that's so disgusting!"

"Are you really having a conversation with God?" he asked, one eyebrow raised. She jumped when he made his presence known.

"Jesus," she said as she pressed her hand against her heart, startled by him.

"Sorry, I'm not Jesus and there is definitely no God around here. Okay I lie; I'm kind of a God."

"Haha, very funny," she said sarcastically, not in the mood to deal with Damon's humour, not when she had a killer headache and her throat felt as dry as the Sahara desert. "How are you so chipper?" she asked. Surely he would be someone who would easily be a foul mood due to a hangover.

"I don't really have a hangover."

"What?" she said in disbelief. "But you passed out before me! Oh wait," she stood up and shouted "I won the drinking game! I was the winner!" she shouted at the top of her lungs despite her sore throat. The shouting not only disturbed those that were still sleeping but it worsened everyones' headaches, including her own. No-one really cared that she won. She guessed some people probably couldn't even remember whatever the hell it was she was talking about.

"You may have won the game but at least I don't have a hangover to cry about," he rubbed in as he jumped up and left her to deal with her pain by herself with the other sufferers.

About 10 minutes later he returned to find Elena sprawled all over the beach, an arm over her face, still groaning in pain and he couldn't help but laugh at her.

She removed her arm and squinted at him. "Don't laugh at my pain!" she snapped.

He just continued to smile before he brought the water bottle out from behind his back and started waggling it in front of her. She grabbed the bottle out of his hand and quickly gulped down its contents.

"Aren't you glad I went to get that water the other day?"

She nodded her head violently before she realised that really didn't help with her headache. "Thank you Damon."

He smiled at her appreciation. "It's not over yet."

He brought the other hand that was hidden behind his back in front of her face. He opened up his palm to reveal what he had been hiding. Her eyes widened in amazement.

"Oh my God, is that-"

"I've been upgraded for Jesus to God? Finally! But yes, yes it is."

"I don't know if I should smack you over the head or give you a kiss," she said honestly eagerly grabbing the two aspirin tablets that lay in his palm.

"I'd rather like the latter," Damon informed truthfully as she smiled.

"Well you're not getting either," she claimed as she grabbed the aspirins out of his hands and quickly swallowed them with a gulp of water.

"Now don't tell anyone else about what I just did," he said seriously.

"Why?" she asked one eyebrow raised. "Don't want people to see what a big, cuddly teddy bear you really are?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, more like I don't have enough aspirins to hand out to everyone and so if they find out they'll hate on you for being my favourite."

She grinned at his words feeling special. "I'm your favourite?"

"Seriously that was all you heard? Not the part where I'm actually protecting you and not being a cocky douche?"

"I'm your favourite!" she repeated unable to wipe the grin off her face. The aspirin was doing wonders; she could already feel the pain of her headache dulling down.

"Okay well I'm just gonna go make sure that everyone else at least has some water. I didn't think the whole getting drunk as fucked thing through, now that everyone seems to be dying." He glanced around to see almost everyone either puking or clutching their heads. He couldn't help but laugh at watching Mason clutch his head. His eyes were bloodshot. Not pretty. "The water's going fast. I'll probably have to take another visit to the waterfall. Want to join me?"

"What, right now?" she asked.

"No. I don't think it's a good idea for you to be walking around right now."

"Because of my leg?" she asked, anger starting to build up. "Did I not prove you wrong, the last time you said I couldn't walk to the waterfall?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down Ms Hulk! I meant because of your hangover. We can go in a few hours."

"Oh," she said lamely, feeling bad for jumping to the wrong conclusion.

"Okay, well I'm going to help the others… with the water thing… yeah," he replied just as lamely. What was getting into him? Since when could he not form sentences properly? He was meant to be the King of smooth!

As he turned to walk away, Elena called out his name, stopping him in his tracks.

"Thank you for saving me, Mr Big, Cuddly Teddy Bear," she giggled.

He rolled his eyes and carried on walking away from her. He couldn't stop the small smile that worked itself onto his face due to Elena's childish side.

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><p>He was handing out water bottles to various people, all of whom seemed to appreciate it. He noticed Rose lying down on a blanket on the sand by herself and approached her.<p>

"Got a killer headache like everyone else?" he asked as he reached her. She smiled up at him before sitting up. She scooched over to give him space on her blanket.

"No, I don't really suffer from hangovers."

His eyebrows rose, impressed. "Me neither."

"I never got to apologise yesterday when we were going through the plane rubble," she said.

"Apologise?" he stated, but the way his voice rose at the last syllable gave away that it was actually a question. He was a little confused by her need to apologise.

"Well yeah, for my behaviour the other day… not going to help you collect the water after you'd amazingly enough found some."

"Oh that," Damon waved his hand in front, in a gesture that said 'it doesn't matter'. "It's fine, I was annoyed at the time but I'm over it."

"Well I still feel guilty. It's just that I really am scared of the dark. I know it's stupid I'm a 25 year-old woman acting like a 5 year-old but I just can't get over the fear," she explained honestly.

His eyes softened when he saw how truthful she was being. Wouldn't he have laughed at this girl and her fear a week ago? This island was making him a softy. Maybe Elena was right when she called him a big, cuddly bear.

"Hey, it's alright. I'm going to collect water in a few hours, in the daylight this time and you can make up for it by helping get the water with me," he suggested kindly. He didn't know why he felt the need to comfort this woman but it just felt like she needed someone.

"That sounds good," she smiled, genuinely happy to be helping out.

Oh shit. He'd forgotten how he'd just asked Elena to go with him. She wouldn't mind if Rose tagged along, right? Besides three pairs of hands carrying water was better than two, right?

He knitted his eyebrows together when he realised he didn't know if Rose was here alone or if she, like Elena may have gone through a trauma. "Are you here alone?"

She smiled. "Yep," she responded popping the 'p'. "I was travelling to New York to meet my friend, Trevor. He'd transferred from London earlier in the year, due to business. Why were you going to New York?"

He made a 'tut tut' noise with his mouth. "Sorry Rose, but I don't like sharing life stories," he said with his voice laced in sarcasm.

"Is that so?" she said slowly. "Let me guess, troubled childhood?"

He rolled his eyes. "Why does everyone always say that?"

"Because it's true darling."

"Well it looks like you're never going to find out whether it is true or not."

"Don't worry if I just continue to answer your questions, you'll soon feel compelled to answer some of mine."

"Don't count on it," he bit out, not liking the confidence the woman was exuding. "Have you spoken to any of the other girls here?" he asked curious to know why she hadn't latched on to the others, seeing as she was here all by herself. He also had the second agenda of desperately wanting to get the conversation away from his life.

"Have you seen the other girls here?"

"Errrm yeah," he answered confused by the question.

"Have they seemed all that intelligent or kind or even decent to you?"

He thought about it. He had only spoken to Klaus's sister once – what was her name? Rebekah? That one time hadn't been pleasant; it was when he was awoken to her screeching match with Mason. She hadn't seemed all that intelligent. Who else was there? Oh the annoying blonde from the plane who had one hell of a set of lungs. What was her name? Urgh, he didn't care. She was not classified as kind under his books – he hadn't forgotten the cock-blocking that had occurred at the airport.

"Okay so the blondes don't exactly seem like great company but Elena's great."

Rose gave him a pointed look that said 'I don't really think so.'

"She is!" he stressed indignantly. He took a quick glance at her to see she was smiling again. The aspirins had done the trick and now she was playing with the sea. Running close to it but then trying to escape it when the tides came in – just like a young child would do. He couldn't help but smile as he watched her.

Rose followed his gaze and couldn't help the jealousy that lit up inside her. "Are you sure it's not just the fact that you want to get into her pants?"

"What?" he said ripping his gaze away from the gorgeous brunette. "No!" he added hastily. "Elena and I are just friends."

"Can you even do friendship with a girl?" Rose asked not very convinced by his answer at all.

"I'm talking to you aren't I?" he challenged.

"Yep and I'm not entirely convinced that you're not trying to get in to my pants either. How long has it been since you had sex? Surely, this is must be the longest time you've abstained for quite some time."

He rolled his eyes. So she had a point. It had been one of his longest streaks of abstinence but it wasn't like he had the greatest choice to choose from. All the girls on the island were beautiful but he still had standards and he wouldn't lower them to sleep with Rebekah or that other blonde. He glanced at Elena, damn he wanted to fuck her until she couldn't breathe, but they were friends now and so casual sex was a no go. Besides, she deserved more than just sex, but he couldn't give that to her. On top of that, she was still convinced she had a boyfriend. He definitely wouldn't be going anywhere with Elena anytime soon. And Rose, well she seemed like a woman with standards as well; he would have to up his game if he was going to get her to cave.

"You're moving away from the point. You should talk to Elena; she's all those things you wanted. She's intelligent and kind. She's funny and she's really stubborn, which is sort of good and bad. Anyway, I know she could do with some more friends on this island too."

She rolled her eyes, "I'll give her a chance then, but if she doesn't impress, it's you that is gonna have to deal with the consequences. Besides, you're gonna need to stop hogging her for me to get a chance to talk to her."

"I do not hog her!" he said indignantly. Her expression showed that she didn't believe him. "I don't! See look at her now. She's not talking to me right now is she?"

"That's because it's one of those rare occurrences whereby you actually decide to talk to someone else."

"Whatever. If you really feel that way then you better enjoy my presence here with you whilst it lasts."

She smiled. "I am," she responded simply.

His eyes narrowed. "Why are you so willing to talk to me and not others?"

"Oh I spent the first few days talking to everyone else here. You're just the first person I actually like."

"Have I stepped into some kind of alternate universe, whereby people actually like me?"

"Well you're still an ass but still, you've got something that makes you likeable."

"Oooh sounds mysterious." She laughed at him and his weirdness.

Elena quickly grew bored with playing with the water, it would have continued to be fun had she had someone else to play with, but everyone here had a stick up their ass, so it didn't look like that would be happening anytime soon.

She looked up, her eyes immediately searching for Damon. She scanned the area and her eyes came to a stop at his figure sitting on a blanket laughing with Rose.

She felt a stab of jealousy go paining through her heart. Seeing him unconsciously lean into her and laugh at whatever she was saying didn't sit well with her. She was meant to be the only one who made him laugh and smile. She didn't like how Rose could do the same to him.

Realisation dawned on her. She should definitely not be feeling jealous. What she and Damon had was friendship and what he and Rose had was friendship. So why then did she feel like she should go over there and mark her territory? Damon was not hers. Stefan was hers. Her guilt multiplied. Stefan. Why were her thoughts always circling around Damon and not her boyfriend?

She didn't like questioning herself and she really didn't like the answers that they produced. She turned away from Damon and Rose. She needed to get her head together again. She and Damon were friends. Rose and Damon were friends. End of story.

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><p>AN Like I said at the beginning, I'm sorry about the long wait! Wrong Salvatore should be coming to an end soon and so I'll be focusing on this story a lot more after that. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Twitter: cosmicbutton  
>LJ: miss_asha_s<p> 


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